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International Journal of Marine Science 2013, Vol.3, No.24, 187-192
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192
and unmarketable species often play important role in
the marine ecosystem. In future, a greater utilization
of by-catch species may be expected. Fishing may
become more selective through gear modifications and
changes in fishing areas and seasons. Also, research
should be undertaken to determine the status of stocks
of species caught incidentally. The development of
new deep sea fishing policies will be a major step
forward for efforts to halt the global decline of
yellowfin, skipjack, albacore, bigeye and other tropical
tuna species. It will not be easy to make the change
from an established sustainable management system
based on sustainable tuna fisheries to a TCFM focused
approach that acknowledges the uncertainty inherent
in Indian Ocean and EEZ of India. The difficulties are
insurmountable; however it should not delay progress.
To date, global and regional climate variability
assessments have focused on agricultural production;
fisheries have not yet been systematically evaluated
(Pedraza and Diaz Ochoa, 2006; Cheung et al., 2009).
Fish population variability and fisheries activities are
closely linked to weather and climate dynamics. While
weather at sea directly affects fishing, environmental
variability determines the distribution, migration, and
abundance of fish. Population dynamics of tuna in the
tropical Pacific Ocean are strongly influenced by
ENSO (Lehodey et al., 1997). Such integrated
predictions of the impact of climate change on Indian
Ocean tuna fisheries are insufficient studies, particularly
at national or smaller scales. However further
investigation is required to ascertain the role of ENSO
in the distribution of tunas in the Indian Ocean. Future
research should focus more on longer time series data
and investigate spatial variability of key environmental
variables, such as sea surface temperature, sea level
pressure, chlorophyll and food distribution in the
Indian Ocean in relation to tuna distribution and its
relationship with climate on different time scales.
Acknowledgement
The Authors thank the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi,
Government of India for awarding the Emeritus Scientist Position and the
Director, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi for providing all
facilities for work at the Institute.
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